Dispelling the myth of "compassion fatigue."

Status Update: Preparing for a Blog Makeover

Already mid-way through summer vacation, I seem to have broken a fundamental blogger code of best practices: be consistent with your posts. Before I give a brief overview of my new vision for this blog, however, I should mention a couple new ventures that have been distracting me:

While in D.C., I’ve had the opportunity to explore organizations that work on international media development. Like other sectors of international development work – including health outreach, microfinance and human trafficking prevention – media development is interdisciplinary. It lies at the cross-roads between professional journalism and the nuances of international development work such as project management, grant writing and project evaluation and reports.

The media development organizations I’m most familiar with all abide by a similar development philosophy. They focus on empowering local journalists to identify and report on local issues that matter most. This support is specific to each individual media development organization, but generally includes technical and professional training, outfitting newsrooms with equipment and the promotion of locally produced content.

Drawing upon two years of development work experience in Kyrgyzstan and my passion for storytelling, I’m engrossed with this blend of journalism and development work. As I dig deeper into this international network of storytellers, I plan on sharing the resources, conversations and remarkable stories on underreported issues and new media initiatives that I find along the way.

Stay tuned for a new blog layout and fresh content late August/early September. Until then, I’ll be taking the time to organize, and possibly migrate, my current blog. Thanks for your interest and patience. I’ll be looking for reader feedback once I’ve launched the new site.